#im gonna show him youll see: jinx interaction

[shimmerbeasts]

Caitlyn walked through the busy tavern, still covered from head to toe with her cloak, as she made her way, sitting on the table that was hidden in the corner of the place. "You are a hard woman to find, Jinx." She said, talking to the other cloaked figure on the table as she removed her hood, revealing her eyepatch-covered face, and a strange smile. "But then again, I did always enjoy chasing after you"

"...how have you been?"

This tavern served different foods than Jinx was used to. While it had been easy to become accustomed to Ionia's meals as they equally regularly relied on fish, there was something about the way things were prepared, which felt completely alien to Jinx. The rolls of seaweed, rice, and a tiny sliver of raw fish were served as appetisers instead of the main dish.

Said main dish rested in a bowl in front of Jinx. Noodles, which were thicker than she was used to, with some minced meat sauce. Zaun's only meat source usually was other people and you could taste that, even if the meat was minced. Eating minced beef was new. At first the richness and fullness of the meals, Jinx had found, had been a bit too much for her frail, constantly starved stomach. It had gotten better these days. Though she still fought a lot with the chopsticks, Ionians used to handle their meals. Her metal finger almost refused to bend properly for those things!

Jinx had been in the process of angling a few sauce-soaked noodles towards her mouth when another hooded figure approached her. The Loose Canon nowadays still wore the shark hoodie, she had worn during the big battle against Noxus and Viktor's robot army. "Do I know you?", asked Jinx, even though the voice sounded familiar.

Her mouthful of food was half past her lips when Caitlyn dropped her hood. Purple eyes grew wide as Jinx involuntarily gawked at the Sherrif's eyepatch. Her smile was strange. Kinder than she remembered it from the last time they had seen each other. Jinx slowly swallowed her mouthful of noodles and put the chopsticks beside the bowl.

I am so tempted to make a pirate joke right now.

She smiled back and said: "Well, the hunt for the most valuable treasure is always the most rewarding, is it not? I didn't expect to ever see you again, Caitlyn. Does Vi know you looked for me? After all, you are pretty far away from Piltover."

She smiled gleefully. Jinx said: "I am feeling better than I have in a long time. I feel lighter, and more at ease. Not even my name feels like it weighs a hundred stones like it did in the past. However, I think I still need to get a better hang of how to pilot that stolen airship. It is fun, but also a bit tricky. I can't really control which way I am flying. But that does harbour a thrill to it. Never know where I end up. I do so love surprises. What about you, eyecap? Still Sherrif of the Pilties?"

[shimmerbeasts]

Seeing Vi press a hand on her stomach in discomfort and avoid her eyes made Jinx want to shove her hand into her sister's mouth. Force her fingers against the roof of Vi's mouth, slamming against the back of the throat to trigger her gag reflex. Her sister had forgotten her carnivorous and cannibalistic nature. Vi ought to taste human flesh. And if it had to be Jinx's fingers as she gasped and retched, coating the Loose Canon's hand in spit, then so be it.

Her sister's words were an insult to hear. Vi was practically denying her Zaunite nature. And for what? Because she wanted to claim some kind of moral superiority? Having nothing to do with Sherrif Charlatan? Ha! Don't make me laugh! You are just doing all of that to impress her. Admit it! Every child in Zaun learned never to throw away anything. You always found some way to repurpose it, to extend it beyond its original use. What else was eating a corpse than giving the survivors to live one more day? To go to bed with a full belly; something which happened far too rarely in the lanes.

"Oh, really?", Jinx whispered as Vi claimed her fangs were still sharp and her claws had the strength to match. She did not even flinch when her sister snapped at her in a brief threat display. Instead, the Loose Canon lowered her gaze and raised her brows up. Pushing her underlip forward, the purple eyes turned into those of a little kitten, making the manic girl look far too much like Powder for comfort.

"Prove it then", she said, "Strike me." I am ready for you now. She smiled and cocked her head, exposing the soft, squishy flesh of her cheeks. The feeling of her sister's hand making contact with her skin rang through her mind and somehow her mania transformed her usual fear into ecstasy. "Or must I turn the other cheek first?"

The tension was starting to boil over, whether that be because Jinx kept goading Vi on or because their differing worldviews meant they were bound to clash eventually. With Vi looming in front of her, hand on Zapper and shoving the barrel downward, Jinx was tempted to angle the weapon at the right angle to shoot her in the foot. However, for now, she listened to her sister's story. Her face dipped into a scowl, the longer Vi spoke.

It would be just like Piltover to think they could just wring the ferocity and monstrosity out of a Zaunite. Stillwater Hold was hell, as many survivors liked to say. Vi's stories matched everything. And even though her indomitable spirit and that iron will to return to Jinx was nothing to sneeze at, the Loose Canon could not appreciate it. Not if it meant giving Caitlyn leverage over her sister. Not if it meant that she owed that Kiramman brat some form of gratitude. Besides, what was her gratitude worth anyway? Stillwater had broken Vi down anyway. And Caitlyn Kiramman had scooped up the broken pieces to make her sister her little plaything.

Vi did not have to ask Jinx twice to shoot. In fact, the moment her sister mentioned them getting into a real fight, the Loose Canon was already hyped up like she had just spotted the brightest fireworks. Her sister could claim that she was still ferocious all she wanted, but Jinx would only believe it when she saw it. Besides, right now, there was no stupid Sherrif following them. For once, it was just them. Exactly how Jinx liked it.

Zapper's hammer slammed against the back of the barrel as she fired a bullet right against Vi's thigh. Jinx twisted herself in her sister's grasp and slammed her boot against the older Zaunite's stomach to get distance between the two of them. She roared with laughter as she twirled her pistol in one hand and lined the weapon up for another shot.

"Bring it, tiger mummy!"

@feraldames

The fact she could see a dead man’s bone being used for a weapon sent chills down her spine. Her sister had eaten him. ATE HIM! It sent disgust down her throat and make her stomach twist as if she wanted to lose the fish her sister had fed her. Her hand pressed up against her stomach to calm herself down, to keep herself from snapping out. Why did her sister love the twisted traditions in Zaun? it disgusted her just to eat someone she didn’t know. They had to do that to survive, but what Jinx did had been wanted and her voice sounded please to do it.

“Do you know how.... I never wanted that for you! And Caitlyn has nothing to do with it. This had been my want. I never wanted to eat other people, never even wanted to eat our parents. They should be buried, return to the earth. Not... our stomachs,” Vi visibly cringed as she hissed slightly. “My teeth are just as sharp and my claws just as deadly; you should know that. I can easily prove it,” Vi snapped her teeth together, insulted by Jinx’s assumption that she had lost her animalistic nature. In fact, she felt more in her skin than she had in a long time. Being free from the prison, from those who leashed her, her power was her own once more.

Vi’s instinct caused her to jump up as Jinx switched gears. The pistol moved with such speed, but Vi’s hand reached out and grabbed the barrel and shoved it toward the ground and hissed. “I do dare!” Vi stated firmly and shook her head with annoyance. “I remember it, Its powder! You were never a jinx!”

The last words stun, as Vi glared and her teeth brandished even sharper. She had no idea what she went through in that prison, the years she spent tortured and starved. Worse than living on the streets of Zaun; Vi had to literally fight every hour, rather than the avoidance of fighting in Zaun. The words were vastly different, and this little girl had no idea what she was saying. “I spent so many years on that ground, trying to find a way out to you. I tried to escape! I swam across the pilt only to be captured, and throwing in the Darkin Hole for a week, and then punished for an entire month. I was beaten any time I said Powder, and I was neglected food. You have no IDEA the hell I went through, so don’t you dare think you understand the torment of my life. It was worse than Zaun, worse than any torment we ever lived with dealing with the enforcers. If not for Caitlyn, I would have never had a chance to escape.”

If only Jinx knew that Vi had originally used Caitlyn, expecting to leave her behind. But then things changed, the moment Caitlyn saved her life from Sevika, staying by her side as she was dying; Caitlyn became just as important to her as Jinx. They both mattered, but Jinx didn’t seem to want to believe that. She wanted to be the only one who mattered when Vi loved multiple people. “I escaped for you! But I don’t even know who you are anymore, and it hurts. So if you're going to be shot me, shot me! Then we’ll get into a real fight.”

[shimmerbeasts]

Sevika puts her cigar down as Jinx hands her a quite heavy package with a purple bow on top. Sevika eyed the younger woman suspiciously for a moment, knowing very well this could be a prank and just praying it wasn't glitter. "That's a... Pretty nice package, did you do it yourself?" Sevika asks, trying to make small talk as she undoes the purple ribbon and starts to unwrap her gift. "Any special reason? It's not my birthday as far as I know..." Sevika didn't get many gifts herself, even from her parents back when she was a kid, so often a gift would come tied to some sort of favor. Steel eyes meet Jinx's once again before she finishes unwrapping her gift, blinking and looking between the newly unwrapped object and Jinx.

Sevika's mistrust wasn't unwarranted. In the past, Jinx had often made the older woman an unwanted guinea pig for her traps and contraptions to see if her deceptions worked. Sure, at most, the brutish bear got a fistful of glitter blown right into her face, however, the experiences still taught Silco's deputy to treat everything the Loose Canon gave her like a bomb.

This time, there was no deception going on. As far as the Loose Canon was concerned, the time for deception, games and trickery were over. Certainly when it came to someone like Sevika. As the brown woman asked if Jinx had made the package herself, the blue-haired lunatic nodded.

"I know Violet destroyed your prosthetic arm", Jinx said, pointing swift fingers at the metal stump with shredded edges on Sevika's left shoulder, "So I thought I help ya out."

Upon unwrapping, the item revealed itself to be a prosthetic arm, however, at first glance, it did not look like such. The front of the arm seemed to mimic a piranha's short, stout snout with sharp jagged teeth. The maw could be moved and the fangs looked sharp enough to cut through flesh and leave imprints on the bones, if not downright crush them. There was a sleek, narrow, extendable hand in the maw with fully functioning moving fingers. The whole arm was covered in Jinx's graffiti, highlights of green and purple, giving the piranha its eyes, fins and scales.

"You were right", Jinx said, her voice dull, defeated and with a simmering trace of anger, "When you told me Vi had replaced me for that stupid Enforcer girl, I did not want to believe you. But you were right. No matter how much you despise me, you told the truth. You did not lie like Silco and Vi did."

"With Papa dead, the Undercity is gonna have a power vacuum", Jinx continued, purple eyes locked on Sevika, "And you are gonna figure out who fills it. You always do. However, with Piltover likely retaliating, given what I did, we need a direction now more than ever. I don't know who else to turn to but you."

@undercityheathens cont. from here.

[shimmerbeasts]

TEMPTING – VERY TEMPTING. Such an offer, but this one has slipped through her claws once before, and how others had been punished for such bold and daring actions to try and read between the lines. That was her job, her contracts were ironclad and always tilted the scales into her favor, always. She cannot be cheated, she cannot be tricked, she cannot be robbed of what she is owed and this one, well let’s just say that her interest was there and that was free for the time being, everything else afterwards .. well that was going to become costly and this little mortal was already within serious debt, no point in adding to the collector and having countless fight all over the pieces once it comes time to carve her up. “Is this a bad time darling, do you need another forty winks to get some beauty sleep.” A hand on her chest and a coy smile upon her lips, false flattery and mocking words aplenty, but it is the nature of such dealings.  She already had her claws in many little pets within the land, why on earth would she want for anymore than what she had, but then again.  A deal was a deal and a contract was almost mouth watering to cut out her useless debtors and merely go right to the person causing her so much trouble and offer them, well what everyone wants, the deal of a lifetime.  No tricks, no little back doors, just a simple deal, what she wants, in exchange for what she wants, it was truly so simple. She had the blade, a hero, a legend within the land, but how he fights and denies, time and time again, how this ought to work. “I am here, to see if you wish for more from me, your sample, is it not to your liking, and that is nothing compared to what you can have, if you only ask for it.”

"Ha ha ha", Jinx called out, feigning amusement at the joke, "I cannot contain my laughter. Ha ha ha."

Her mismatched eyes drifted over towards Mizora's large, bat-like wings. Bats had hollow bones. It allowed them to fly. They also were particularly fragile and the leathery skin, too, was something, which ought not be damaged. Jinx idly wondered whether or not Mizora would be robbed of the power of flight if she yanked just hard enough, twisted her bones by a joint and caused it to snap. Or perhaps she should take out her dagger and cut into the leathery skin that way.

The thoughts felt good like dipping your bare feet into the warm waters of a boiling spring. They coaxed a sly smile out of Jinx's lips and her tail flicked from one side to the next. Still, she forced the contemplation down. As much as she wanted to do it - and that desire burned to the point her muscles cramped -, she knew it would jeopardise Wyll's safety and hers. The tiefling could not let that happen.

Hearing Mizora ask her what she wanted, if she wanted more power, the warlock began to pace back and forth like a displacer beast in a cage, large tentacles flicking back and forth. Powder peered after her, the familiar's tail matching her tail's slow curls and flicks. Jinx closed her fingers around her chin as she thought long and hard. Finally, she stopped and looked at Mizora.

"Here is the kicker", Jinx admitted, "I am not really after more power, so I really do not know how to ask for what I want. I am more invested in what's going on in here." She tapped a clawed finger against her temple. "Not the tadpole, mind yah! I am more interested in the whole other stuff. All these images and intrusive thoughts... I do not wanna get rid of them. But I do wanna understand them better. I think in the past, I specifically chose to become a ranger to understand what goes on in my head, but it didn't lead to the result, I wanted. Hunting game in the woods and even hunting people is different than the way people are, well, diabolical. Soooo, do you think you can help me on that front? Or is that out of a devil's skill book?"

@fallesto cont. from here.

[shimmerbeasts]

Isha bounces excitedly where she sits, a smile on her lips as her tiny fists clasp together, watching as Jinx explains every step of the bomb they were building together. She wore her hat, a bit too big for her own head as her small, blue dyed braids peaked out of it. She offers Jinx a nod when she says the last step is dumping a handful of nails. “Your hand or mine?” She asks, tilting her head as she looks down at her own hands, small and chubby while Jinx's were bigger, longer, Isha bet she could fit waaay more nails within her more slender palms. Isha bounced to her feet as Jinx motioned to where the nails were and rushed to go get them, returning with a smile and a bag. She picked up two handfuls of nails and dropped inside the small capsule, picking it up and pulling it close to her face, looking inside with one eye. “It's gonna go boom! And the nails are gonna poke everyone, and make holes in them! Like an angry porcupine!” She giggles and holds the bomb lid, smiling excitedly at Jinx as she closes the capsule, the metal still clean, free of Jinx's usual art, today was Isha who was going to paint and name this one. Her first friend. No. No, it wasn't her first friend. Jinx was. Jinx was her first friend, her best friend, her only friend. “I get to name it?” She asks, looking up at her with big, golden eyes. “And paint him?” She asks, looking down turning the capsule around in her small hands. “I wanna name it Quills…” She smiles wide, looking up at Jinx again.

At the question of whose hand to use, Jinx could not help but raise a hand to inspect her own hand. Sevika had wrapped a bandage around her hand. It still felt alien to be missing a finger. Caitlyn's magical-infused bullet had cauterised the wound in the shot and yet the burn still hurt so much that Jinx could not work on replacing her finger. Not yet. Plus inhaling so much of the grey had weakened her.

"How about we both use our hands, Isha?", Jinx proposed, "One half handful each? Then this little guy has plenty of nails in their arsenal." She gave a weary laugh as Isha rushed to get the bag of nails. Putting a hand on her chest, feeling her lungs strain against her ribs, she gave a soft groan. Hopefully, that weakness of breath would pass soon.

As Isha dumped in nails eagerly, Jinx scooped up a small pile with her healthy hand and dropped them on top of hers. Grinning slyly, she said: "Oh, absolutely. It is gonna go BOOM and the nails will leave lots of little knicks in people's skin. Maybe they even cost someone their eye." She shut one of her eyes, made a weird bleh sound and stuck out her tongue.

"Yeah", Jinx reiterated as if this was not even a question for her, "You are painting them, are you not? So you get to decide who they are." The Loose Canon saluted the little toy. She said: "A worthy name for a strong adversary. Mister Quills, may you hurt many people you come across."

She stood up and got the crayons and paints. Placing the boxes and bottles beside Isha, she said: "Go on. Knock yourself out, kid."

@tiinypowpow cont. from here.

[shimmerbeasts]

Those were troublesome, yet good news at the same time. Vi had seen Jinx with Silco, but she did not seem to remember Silco. She only registered him as a Someone. And she also seemed to be more focused on Marcus as a culprit for her pain. It was something, Jinx would gladly latch onto. Having a face to project your hatred and fury onto helped. That was what Silco believed. Otherwise, he would not be raving about Vander the way he did. Vander had left and betrayed him, tried to drown him - and Silco had neither forgotten, nor forgiven that. The emotions, this drowning had created, were a special kind of fuel.

Silco had even tried to give Jinx the same fuel by making Vi the face of her hatred. However, Vi did not work the same way as Vander did. Yes, she had struck Jinx and named her during the worst moment of her life. But Vi had also protected her whenever Mylo had picked on her. Vi had taught her everything, she knew. Vi was a monster and a protector. Vi was an enemy and her sister. Vi was her rage and her happiness. She could never be just one or the other. She was both and more, and complicated and weird. Her amnesia now complicated things even further. Making Vi a whole new person to figure out.

Hearing that Marcus had drugged her sister, Jinx puffed out her cheeks. Drugging shouldn't be something bad. Papa did it all the time. Fed people Shimmer to make them contort, twist and grow into something stronger and terrifying. He made the lame ones walk again and allowed those, who could barely breathe, draw in full breaths. All with the purple gold. Shimmer was a drug and medicine. That could not be bad.

However, what Vi described, made her blood boil. Clicks and whistles filled her ears, Mylo's sharp laughter as he hollered something about her big sister having been used. "I thought this was the last time we were gonna do this!" "Well, this time is the last time." A Zaunite being made to take the folly of a Piltie upon themselves. It was the same age-old song, Silco was trying to break each day. Topside always screwed them over. Vi might speak of killing and torture, but all Jinx could think was how Marcus had made her sister cattle. And this would not stand!

"We'll get him", Jinx rasped, "I promise you that. We'll make that Piltie wish he had never touched you."

Jinx smiled and stammered: "I don't want you to leave either. I just got you back. Oh, Vi... I missed you so much. Even if I heard your voice in every whisper, saw your shape in every shadow, felt your hands in every passing touch, I knew it was just my head playing tricks with me. Even now, I fear this is another trick. I don't want to believe that it is. Because your touch feels real, you look real, you sound real, you smell real... Yet you feel so strange at the same time. Am I strange to you too?"

Curious sapphire eyes followed Vi's hands as her sister unwrapped her bandages. Her hand tantalisingly trailed over the details of the gauntlet tattoo, from the steam between the vents to the rings in the metal to the swirls and diamonds. It was beautiful, yet what Vi described next, sounded even more beautiful. Marcus, that arrogant fool, had done Papa a great service. Even without the help of Shimmer, he had helped awaken Vi's monster and nurtured it to the best of his capabilities.

However, the fact that he had never been brave enough to face the beast, meant that he did not deserve to call himself the father of Vi's beast. A true father would have stayed by her side as she clawed her way out of puddles of blood, whipping gore from her face and smelling the dead in her nose. A true father would have embraced the blood-soaked beast and sing it praises, kiss it lovingly and tell it how proud he was of it. A true father would have ensured that the beast only got the finest meat to dine on and honed its abilities on the squirmiest of targets.

A true father like Silco.

Jinx would not stand for the insecurities, Vi voiced. Her sister's monster needed to be nurtured and fed right now. Pampered even. Where was the Shimmer? She had to see if she could smuggle a vial or two from Silco's office; preferably the heavy-hitting stuff. Once she mixed that into some warm fish or the special soup, Jericho made, her sister would feel as good as new.

"Vi", Jinx said and brushed a hand up her sister's arm before she brushed some of her hair back, "I would never turn away another monster. Certainly not one that is in need like you are. Papa taught me that monsters are Zaun's biggest strength. If we wanna make sure that those pesky Pilties keep to their side of the river, we have to be as terrifying as possible. If we just scare them enough, they won't dare to set foot into the Undercity.

"So, no, I ain't gonna turn you away. Especially now that you mention, you enjoy killing!" She laughed in excitement and spun around in front of her sister, her braids trailing after her before they wrapped around her arms. Jinx jumped up on her tiptoes and stormily pulled Vi into a hug. "I love killing!", she called out enthusiastically, "I love it when things go boom and people burn! I love tearing people apart. I love ripping Pilties to shreds! It is all so delightful and colourful and fun! But I would love it even more if I can do it with you."

No word in which Jinx spoke went unnoticed or unheard, even as Vi struggle to anchor herself to reality properly. Including the fact, that Jinx stated that she killed everyone. While Vi tried to recall what happened, what lead to this sudden shrillness in Jinx's tone, she couldn't find herself thinking too much on it. As all that mattered to her in this moment was that she wasn't alone, that she had her sister here...

Vi so easily leaned into Jinx's hold, finding the way in which Jinx ran her hands through her hair therapeutic in a way. Even the franticness of it, the way it nearly scrubbed into the scalp was enough to reassure her that she was finally home. It was enough to fully break her out of the memory of Marcus that had nearly consumed every part of her. Though it did nothing to die down the rage and even more so, knowing that now, Jinx felt that rage, too.

"I remember it now, after I hit you, I saw you with someone. I tried to run to you, to help you, but that's when he got me. Marcus snatched me up and fucking drugged me up." Vi glanced up at Jinx, the cold blue eyes of "iron hands" making themselves known as they met sapphire. "He is what ruined everything, not whatever you did. Marcus took me away from you and put me in hell. For eight years I played my part, tortured, killed, anything to get answers that I never got."

Despite how consumed she was with anger, she did notice how quickly Jinx seemed to drop the subject of Silco. It was a tactic she knew too well, deflecting an uncomfortable subject. Hell, she could see it in her sister's eyes. That whatever was going unsaid would affect them, should it come to light. That alone was enough to calm her down, for a moment as she finally let her claws out of skin and pressed a hand against Jinx's cheek.

"As much as I want to remember what happened, if it means more to you that I don't, than I'm okay with that. It's enough knowing that I have you." The coldness in her eyes were still there, but it wasn't towards her, in fact, the fondness was evident. "Even if it does come back to me, you're all that I have. I can't leave you again."

Vi held up her left hand and begun to unwrap the straps covering her fist, until it revealed the gauntlet tattoo covering it in fine detail. "When Marcus locked me up, he created a monster. Ironhands, they called me. Only he's never gotten to see the monster, never gave a shit enough to come around after the first few times." Vi looked away at that moment, almost as ashamed and perhaps afraid she would scare her sister away instead.

"I want to tear him limb from limb, and make it every bit as painful as I could. God knows the bastard deserves it." Vi could gather that JInx was unaccustomed to monstrosity, but could she handle hers? And goddamit why was she so insecure now of all times? Vi brought her hands up to hold Jinx's, squeezing them tightly. "And I would love nothing more than to do it with you by my side, but.... But I'm afraid after you see what I am, you will turn me away. Because what I am, I'm not just some killer... I enjoy it..."

[shimmerbeasts]

The nail polish dripped off the small brush as Jinx pulled it out of the small vial. She sat on Silco's desk, nursing Silco's hand on her knee. Jinx carefully and methodically began applying the nail polish to Silco's nails. Red, green, red, green, ad infinitum. Red for the deaths the Sickly Months brought. Green for the diseases, Zaun had learned to fear. All because those pesky Pilties did not give a damn about the ways their trading seasons endangered their darker sister.

Jinx hummed under her breath. Putting the brush back into the jar of nail polish, she raised Silco's hand up by the wrist and breathed with a low whistle across it to help the paint dry. A small smile crept across her face, showing off her fangs. She had tried painting her canines red and green too, using a mirror. Her work had not been too perfect, paint smudging against her gums.

"Other hand, Papa?", she requested, waiting for Silco to hand her his other hand. Jinx picked up the red nail polish. Stirring the brush in the bottleneck, listening to the squishing of the paint, she asked: "Who do you think is gonna dress up as the Pale Death for today's festivals? Ooohh, did we make pastries?! I bet Sevika forgot again!"

The Pale Death was what Zaunites called their iteration of Kindred. A large humanoid chimaera of a wolf and a lamb. With sickly grey fur and shades of green, the Pale Death was best known for having the skull of a wolf for its head and a thick layer of lamb wool on its shoulders. Zaunites tended to copy this by wearing white scarves and animal skulls. The tradition dictated that they tried to stave off death's presence by offering it parts of their meals to compel it to walk past their house.

@reverentlit liked for a Christmas (my version) themed starter.

[shimmerbeasts]

Stalking The Wounded Dog

Following Vi had been a thing of ease.

When an animal was wounded enough, it usually tried to find refuge in some secluded spot where it could bleed out in peace and safe from the leering eyes of predators. Not Vi though. Vi chose to take her wounds and wear them like black paint on her skin, presenting herself for all the leering predators and their salivating jaws as if she was daring them to rip her apart.

While Jinx apparently made a mockery of Zaun's animalism by becoming more than a predator, Vi made a mockery of her heritage by turning her role in the natural order inside out. Vi had not filed down her fangs and claws as Jinx had feared. She had done something worse. She had traded those weapons for bucking hooves and piercing horns. She had made herself a wounded prey animal and she fought with the fear of death against everybody in that ring.

The air in the hall of the underground fighting ring was stale and dusty. The sickly pale green light of lamps installed in the ceiling reminded Jinx of Zaun. Funny how that worked. Ever since her rocket, it seemed some of her home's violence had spilt over into perfect Piltover. The floor had been busted open to expose the rot underneath.

The hall was packed. A sea of people from the lower houses and classes of Piltover. Enforcers, cobblers, traders. All those, who did not have enough money to live in a house of marble and gold. Jinx thought she could even catch sight of the leering, leathery hides of Zaunites with their flashing fangs, rolling tongues and clicking claws. She let herself be pushed forth by the maelstrom, cocooned in a simple greyish-brown hood to conceal her telltale blue bangs and startling purple eyes. The visitors were creating a pooling river from the betting stands over towards the edges of the arena where you could look inside.

Jinx finally reached the betting stand. In a swing sat a yordle with grey skin and sunken, green eyes; his fat, little body was practically trapped in an ugly, bright yellow jacket. Jinx wondered idly if his guts would spill coins as she watched him munch on a few tentacles, riddled with grittle.

"Yes?", he asked.

"Red betting cards", Jinx ordered, her voice quiet and hoarse. She rummaged in her cloak in search of her coin purse and asked idly: "Is it possible to meet the young upstart post-stage?"

The yordle let out a throaty laugh, spit flying in Jinx's face. She remained unmoving, though her nostrils twitched and her lips pulled down.

"You are a fan of our young upstart, eh?", the ringleader said with a slimy grin on his round, bat-like face, "Can see why. That crazy butch has been wiping the competition left and right since she started here. Brought in a nice sum of money."

"In a manner of speaking", Jinx answered the question, "Now can you arrange this or not?"

The yordle shook his head and said: "Sorry, cutie, but normally, we don't do behind-the-scenes meetings. Though maybe I make an exception for you, sweetie. Go all in with something that is worth it. If our violent panther wins, you are free to meet her."

Jinx reached under her cloak again and procured her Zapper pistol. The yordle's eyes went wide. He called: "Oh, that's a fancy gadget you got there, cutie. All in then?" Jinx slammed Zapper on the wood and shoved him in the direction of the yordle. Her voice was like ice as she said: "All in."

The crowd was in uproar as the beginning of the first match drew nearer. Jinx let herself be manoeuvred closer to the edge of the pit. Standing between two other burly men, who almost obscured her from view, a single purple eye stared down at the pit, burning with fever.

The ring leader's voice came over a speaker as he shouted: "Good evening lads and lassies! Welcome to the first round of Piltover's Boxing League! Today we have an exciting match for y'all! Are you ready?" The crowd cheered, whooped and stomped their feet. "In the right corner, we have our defender of the golden belt! Last year's champion! You know him, you love him! Give it up for Thundering Thomas!"

Under a loud roar, a large, muscular man a good two times Vi's size came running into the ring. He only wore a pair of shorts, adorned with the aforementioned golden belt, a heavy leather item, adorned with a giant golden buckle. He had pale blond hair, which looked like he had been struck by lightning once, judging by how weirdly jagged it sat on his head. The man pounded his chest, roaring as loudly as possible while the crowd cheered him on.

Jinx stayed silent, though as the part of the announcement, she was actually here for, came through, she grinned wily. "And in the left corner, we have his challenger! You were just as surprised by her upstart as I was! Give a hearty welcome to the newest and most vicious member of our ring! Don't let her claws hit you. Here is Tigress!"

Excited thrills and whistles could be heard. Someone very drunk in the back row yelled: "Please go out with me!" Jinx gave a derisive snort, however, she gave a hearty clap, her rhythm a similar pattern to the slow clap, Silco had done in the cannery so many years ago. As the yordle prepared to bang the gong, shouting for bets, Jinx merely raised her hand with cold confidence, flashing one of the few red cards in the entire room. She fell silent, purple gaze locked exclusively on Vi as the gong rang in her ears.

@ferinehuntress

[shimmerbeasts]

"Deep breath, I have you." - @zaunseye

Gentle Care||Accepting.

"My feet are not touching the bottom!" Water splashed around Jinx's arms and torso as she paddled with her limbs in the river. Her body shuddered. Even though Silco had taken the height of summer for this swimming lesson, she still felt a bit cold. Never mind that bopping up and down like this was rather spooky.

"This is terrifying!"

Under loud splashes, Jinx paddled more than she actually swam in the direction of Silco's arms. Stupid tall man with his stupid long legs! Why could he stand in this area of the river, while she already would be chin under water if her feet touched the ground? Finally, after a few more strokes of her arms, Jinx landed in Silco's embrace. Clutching her hands against his upper arms, the little girl gasped and shuddered. Her muscles still twitched restlessly, however, as the minutes ticked by, she began to calm down some more.

Part of her wanted to get back to the shore and out of the water, but Silco insisted that she had to keep practising. Something about wanting to ensure that she never drowned. Jinx was pretty sure that Silco did not just mean the actual act of drowning. This was about his whole repeated story with Vander. He was like a brother and he betrayed him and bla, bla, bla!

His words helped ground her. Silco would not let her drown. He'd pull her to safety if she messed up. She could mess up around him. He had promised that it was okay, that he loved her and would not think less of her because of her slip-ups. The waves, touching her hips, still freaked her out a bit. They made her think of the slimy tentacles, Jericho sold. They were goating her on, wanting to pull her beneath them. Jinx pouted and angrily glowered at the river. She would not let it claim her!

"I am ready to try again."

[shimmerbeasts]

The longer she stayed in the presence of this ... Metal Fortune Cookie the more her blood boiled! She had thought that nothing could ever surpass the arrogance and self-assuredness of a Piltie, yet this Viktor was determined to prove her wrong! At the same time though, Jinx hated admitting he was right.

She would not have given a damn about the addicts. After all, what else were they than fodder for Chem-Tanks when all was said and done? It was like a twisted form of a life cycle. Every monster eventually reached a time when excessive fighting had dulled its claws and sanded off its teeth. The Chem-Tanks were a form of mercy really, a twisted blessing in disguise. They prolonged your life and let you partake in the circle of violence for just a little bit longer.

"You've lived on the other side of the river for too long", Jinx sneered, "Live like rats. Only a Piltie talks like that! We have our own systems of survival, our own rings of violence. Shimmer slots into that as neatly as our claws and teeth. But I should not have to explain that to you. As a fellow Zaunite, you should be intimately familiar with it all."

But he did not look or smell like a fellow Zaunite, didn't he? He did not look like a Piltie either. That metal exoskeleton and that detached, dispassionate voice, those Arcane powers ... It all reeked of unnaturalness, and Jinx was livid that those addicts were so obsessed with the idea of a miracle cure that their own Vastayan senses did not catch any of this! They should be ashamed of themselves! In fact, why hadn't Hucks done what anybody in his position would have done by now? Find an empty pipe, curl up in it and die!

His next words infuriated Jinx enough that she drew Zapper and aimed the pistol at his face. Her voice was a low, menacing growl as she said: "You don't know the first thing about me or the Undercity. How long have you been smooching it up with the Pilties? To the point you forget violence is as much a part of our everyday life as drinking and sleeping are. Or eating for that matter."

Her gaze drifted over to the sleeping man. Jinx wondered how much meat was left underneath all that metal skin. "Maybe I should just remind you," she whispered ominously and directed her pistol to the man Viktor had just ushered to rest. Her trigger finger itched. It grew and grew, even as the air became heavy with the stinging of nettles, and her skin felt scorched.

"Because you are a Jinx! Do you hear me? Mylo was right!"

The words drowned out any sense of reason, any hope of redemption. Without any sign of remorse on her face, Jinx aimed the pistol and fired. The gunshot ruptured loudly through the air. It struck the man in recovery in his chest and killed him immediately. He didn't even have the chance to scream. Thick irony blood coated the corpse and filled the air with its sickly sweet odour.

Jinx pointed at the pile of meat with her pistol and said: "Go on. You have food. Eat it. Or did your little cure also erase their Vastayan nature?"

Viktor tilted his head ever so slightly, his eyes moving between the addicts. Clearly he cared more about this sakes than this conversation for the most part. He was feeling rather...exhausted. That was probably the closest word he could attain to this feeling. The pulling sensation had ceased for now, but there was another guidance deep within. Coaxing him to rest, to close his eyes and...meditate, perhaps? It felt as if he had somewhere to be, but couldn't remember where.

Only when she called out his actions did he glance back her way. "I admit, the first time was a compulsion. But you did not see his face. You didn't see the sheer amount of pain and pleading he had. I don't believe you would have cared if you did." He almost snapped back in retort. "A Messiah? Hardly. I'm just someone who showed them some sympathy, someone who actually wanted to help them rather than allowing them to live like rats."

Viktor tilted his head up, as if to look down on her. It was a very slight action, but poignant all the same. "Of course you weren't to know. You lack of care for other lives presents itself. A pity you use your intelligence for such destruction." Viktor moved around, using his staff to steady himself but it was more a comfort and habit of his than an actual need for it these days. "The irony is palpable. The Undercity tears itself to shreds, you yourself are a part of that cycle, and the moment some sanctuary presents itself, you become hostile and threaten me? If I was to make the wrong move? From what I hear of your actions, Jinx, perhaps it is you you should be warning."

"Now," The staff comes down with a rather echoing thunk. "What have you come down here for?"

[shimmerbeasts]

" you seem to think you're gonna be able to walk away from this. " (for jinx)

Intimidation Prompts||Accepting.

She had returned.

Of course, she had. From Jinx's own experience, the past was hard to shake off. It called to you like a siren's song, drew you back to certain places. Often your feet carried you without your permission. They would carry Jinx to the old arcade with toys dusty and shabby, yet functioning, for something in Jinx felt the desire to tend to them. To fix them whenever they had a crook in their posture or chipped-off paint on their exterior. Vi had always said she could fix anything. And so Jinx went to work: Tightening screws, fastening bolts, swapping out chemicals, reapplying paint. She had lost count of how often she brought the old arcade back to life when she had nothing else to do. Until Vi and that pesky Piltie girlfriend of hers had chosen to flood the arcade with the Grey! Tainting everything! Ruining the last safe place, Powder had known.

Somehow, Jinx doubted the place where they were now, was associated with happy memories. After all, this was where Caitlyn and Vi had tried to kill her as much as she had tried to kill them. Though if she were honest, she had been after Vi more. After all, Vi was family. Vi had turned away from her. So what if that made Jinx commit familicide? She'd done it often enough! By now she was even more of a familicide killer than Silco. Caitlyn would have been a nice kill too. The type of kill, from which you could peel off the meat. Jinx smacked her tongue idly against the roof of her mouth. She still remembered how soft and clean Caitlyn's skin had been, how barely marred from scarring.

They could not even get into the actual crime scene anymore. Only this well with the rungs in one part of the wall and the collapsed tunnel on the other side. Jinx's charcoal drawing of Powder on the stone, blocking the entrance, showed a couple of dents. It seemed Caitlyn had returned multiple times in an almost foolish attempt to dig her way through the rock. Maybe she was hoping that Jinx was still trapped behind that wall, against all odds. As if you could ever trap a Zaunite in a tunnelling system. They were the ones, who had dug for Piltover's minerals in the city's founding days. Navigating dark, dense corridors with air so thick it clogged your throat was in their blood.

She was doing it even now, slamming the butt of her rifle against the rock, cracking some of the paint. Though even if she had used all her might, there was no way Caitlyn could fully dig through that rock. She seemed to have realised that too, for she stopped, shoulders slumped and murmured something under exhaustion. Jinx had to strain her ears to hear it.

"You seem to think you're gonna be able to walk away from this."

"I already have."

Jinx's voice was a quiet whisper, just subtle enough that you might think it was the wind and maybe your head was playing tricks on you. Her metal finger softly rubbed against her flesh fingers. The way Caitlyn had shot off her actual finger had hurt, yet despite the shock and panic, Jinx had still been able to see the rage and frustration in her opponent's face. Caitlyn hated that she had been unable to kill her with that shot. She hated the fact that she had missed her shot. She must have thought herself some big, fat hero, avenging her Mummy.

The Loose Canon was sitting on a pipe, almost concealed by the darkness as she hugged the ceiling with her back. Her purple eyes locked onto Caitlyn's back. it would be so easy to pull Zapper out and fire. Jinx wondered idly if Caitlyn would be able to taste the bone of the bullet before she died. But that was not what she had dragged all the way up here.

"Tell me, how does it feel to be orphaned?", Jinx asked idly, "After all, you still have plenty of food and a roof to sleep under. You still have your family name. You did not lose any valuable safety net. You lost your mother. But you are so rich. I am sure you could pay some poor Zaunite cleaner woman to fill that role."

She gave a gentle nudge to the bundled-up figure, she had kept on the pipe beside her. It spun through the air before it came crashing onto the ground right behind Caitlyn. The figure was a life-sized effigy of Cassandra Kiramman, even dressed in a black robe with a white blouse. There was a clicking and ticking noise as a mechanism inside the effigy sprang to life. The body twisted and bent, writhed on the ground like something in pain before under a loud peng, its ribcage burst open and dripping, deep red paint covered the effigy, the floor and parts of Caitlyn's arrogant, new cape.

Jinx peeled herself out of the darkness as she descended the pipe. Pale-white skin, stark, cobalt blue hair, bound into two long, thin braids and a pair of hungry, knowing, purple eyes. The young Zaunite smiled at Caitlyn as she placed a boot against the edge of the effigy as if she meant to cut off Cassandra's air supply.

"Hello", purred Jinx.

[shimmerbeasts]

RP: Found Culprit

"What?! Are you telling me you, brat, do not even have the galls to finish me after all of this?!"

Despite the man's attempt to yell as loudly as possible, his voice was hoarse and shaky. His body had exhausted itself screaming in agony over the last couple of hours. He was marked by signs of torture. Bruises, the size of balled fists and knuckle imprints bloomed across his torso, belly and back. One of his eyes had swollen shut, blood dropped from a busted, split lip and his hair had a sweaty dampness to it.

The man was kneeling on the floor with thick ropes binding his hands behind his back. The cap of one of his knees had jumped out to the side, making the entire knee swell and turn dark purple-blue. It stood in stark contrast to the man's chalk-whiteness.

Jinx had disappeared outside of the front door of the almost empty warehouse. As soon as she had left, Sevika turned around with a far greater speed than expected. The brown woman crossed the space between her and the man, whose nose was still crusted up with the snot of his not-yet-healed disease. Without any hesitation, Sevika shoved two of her metal talons into his nostrils and pushed his head up. The sharp metal cut and irritated the slimy tissue and the man let out a sudden wail.

"She's not a brat", Sevika spat out, "She's the boss's daughter! You watch your mouth around her."

She scowled as she inspected the sniffling man below her before she eased her claws out of his nose. The man sneezed, his body bending forward as if he wanted to protect his vital organs and his face from the sharp metal arm hovering far too close for personal comfort.

However, he wasn't even granted that comfort for as he curled in on himself, the Chompers attached to his belly sunk their iron teeth deeper into his exposed flesh. Tears welled up in his eyes before he uncurled himself. The grenades continued to jiggle in him but remained blissfully untriggered. His dried blood had mixed with the smell of the urine, he must have let go off in the early hours of torture.

Sevika scoffed in disappointment. The men working for other Chem-Barons became more lacklustre as time dragged on. Silco was right. The whole rabble had turned into parasites, dulling their claws and fangs in the process. Lowlife vermin, which could not even stick to something as simple as a quarantine during the Sickly Months for their safety. And look where it had gotten them!

"A word of advice:", Sevika spoke and her lips pulled into an unfriendly smile, dark eyes blackening with bile, "Once Silco finds out who's behind his current state, you are going to wish that Jinx in her impulsivity had just killed you."

The door to Silco's office was open with such gusto that it banged loudly against the opposite wall. Only one person would ever have the courage and nerve to barge into the Eye of Zaun's office unannounced and unhindered like that, and that very same person was now standing in the doorway, her chest heaving for she had sprinted from the docks all the way back to The Last Drop.

Where Sevika was tall and a muscular, dark behemoth, Jinx was small, lean and as pale as a ghost. The only stark detail about her appearance was her long cobalt-blue braids, which swayed behind her trembling legs like the nervous tail of a cat. She was dressed in punkish attire from a black tank top to purple striped pants to purple sleeves, ending in a pair of dark, finger-less, leather gloves with golden brass on the knuckles.

Right now, Jinx looked even more dirty than she was anyhow from her experiments and misfiring explosions, covering her in soot and smudges of ash. Her utility belt missed two Chompers and Zapper's barrel tip was darkened from dried up blood. Some blobs still trickled down the edge. Jinx's huge, sapphire-blue eyes were darting around, looking for Silco with an expression of concern, alarm and excitement.

Back when Silco had gotten infected with Noxian Flu from an envoy from another, back then unidentified territory, Jinx had been in a lot of alarm. Most diseases during the Sickly Months could bear quite the fatal results. However, Singed had assured her that with enough Shimmer, some additional medicine as well as lots of rest, her father would recover swiftly, provided he stayed quarantined.

It had only been a couple of days ago that the eerie doctor deemed Silco healthy enough to come back to The Last Drop to do some mild work. Yet even so, Sevika had pulled double duty to ensure none of Silco's plans were delayed. The gang had also done its hardest to ensure that the common people had no idea that the Eye of Zaun had gotten sick to the point he had been bedridden for weeks.

Even so, it was still hard for Jinx to see her father in the state, he was in now. Silco could work mostly normally, however, he still relied on a highly decorative cane to get from one place to the next. Still, the Doctor had said that her Papa had survived the worst of the disease and was well on his way to recovery.

Jinx tried to steady her excitement. Letting the door fall shut behind herself, she rushed over to the desk and with hands slamming upon the wood, she leaned forwards, balancing on the tip of one foot, the other leg kicking up, as Jinx announced with a bright smile:

"WE FOUND THE CULPRIT, PAPA! He works for Finn!"

Starter for @zaunseye.

[shimmerbeasts]

It was another quiet night at The Last Drop. Just enough patrons to justify keeping the doors open, and never a lack of people looking for a stiff drink. Operation had been moving rather smoothly since Vi torn away the ugly signs and even uglier presence that Silco and his goons had filled the bar with in her time away. She wasted no time in tearing away all of that garbage, and polishing the hidden gem of the old rustic bar. Rumor already bumbled around, this Hellhound of the Underground being Vander's prodigy, how the new barkeep even took a name that echoed her adoptive father's title in her own way. Vi felt right at home around the clinking of glasses and the joyful laughs of the patrons. Standing at the bar, the mercenary swiped her bar rag through another bowler glass and set it against the counter, fishing out a bottle of scotch. She swept it up with easy hands and poured the Bilgewater export into the the glass, serving it neat to one of the inebriated consumers sitting at the bar. Just as she moved to put the bottle back, she felt.. Strange. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and there was a sudden pit of dread in her stomach. Her tongue darted out to wet her dry lips, only to find her mouth to be sucked dry as well. She glanced around quickly, finding nothing out of place. It didn't feel like an episode, so what the hell was happening? She opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by the sudden blast of an inferno. The explosion that came from seemingly nowhere was strong enough to rock the very foundation of the bar, the ceiling quivering and dropping particles of dust down, and the first two round tables were engulfed by the blue plume of shimmering smoke. Vi instinctively brought her hands up to defend her face, but she was too slow. A metal band fired off from the hinges and knocked the brawler right in the face, ripping an ugly gash across her cheek and the bridge of her crooked nose, not far below her eye. She dropped to the ground and clutched at her face, hot and panicked breaths escaping her for a moment. She drew her right hand back and stared at the hot blood gathered against it, before she swiped it on her shirt an shoved her hands into the Atlas Gauntlets behind the bar top. She drew a breath in to steady her mind as five distinct scents hit her nose. Blood. Gunpower. Sulfur. Flesh. Smoke. Patrons screamed and panicked, and Vi knew she had to act. Who the hell had just blasted a gaping hole where her front door had been previously been? "Hey asshole, I didn't ask for a remodel!" Vi called out as she jumped the bar suddenly, looking to the patrons who were panicking. She tried to not pay any mind to the four who laid dead on the floor. In a quieter voice, she regarded them. "Back door. Get the hell out. We're closed for the night." She whispered, watching them scramble, before she brought her defensive stance to the door, blading her body. She watched with bated breath as the figure slowly emerged.. And her silvered eyes shimmered with a hint of blue. "Pow-pow?" The name left her lips in a disbelieving tone, and her fists dropped suddenly. No, no, not now. Her gaze only softened for a second, before she drew her brows in and raised her hands again. Her scarred lip drew into a scowl. "The asshole who desecrated this place the first time 'round is dead. What the hell do you think you're doing?" She hated how her voice trembled. She never wanted to talk to her sister like that. But.. Was she still her sister? She was Jinx now, and Vi failed to kick those delusions out. Silco ruined her, and she feared she was too far gone. Even though Vi had her gauntlets on, her fists up... Her certainty wavered.

The patrons of the bar panicked; their shouts and screams, the trampling of their feet filled Jinx with satisfaction and grim pleasure. Whoever had tried to establish themselves here had certainly forgotten the powerful and terrifying Chem-Baron, who had controlled the Lanes for eight, prosperous years. And just as the bar owner had forgotten who ruled this place, so had the patrons.

Furthermore, many had made the mistake of assuming the living legacy of Silco was out for the count. Just because Jinx was no longer as present in the Lanes as she had been when Silco was alive, did not mean that she would not defend what she saw rightfully as belonging to her father and now Sevika.

Even so, nothing could have prepared Jinx for the person who stepped out of the chaos in The Last Drop to confront her. She still wore those heavy, ugly, navy-blue Gauntlets, laced with gold. They did not fit into the environment, marking themselves out as coming from the other side of the river, from Piltover. However, that dark red leather jacket and short, magenta hair, those stark, blazing blue eyes would always be recognisable for her - and seeing her sister right now in that carnage, marking herself as the owner and desecrater of The Last Drop was like a stab through the heart.

"Vi?", whispered Jinx in confusion and could feel herself balk. Her innards twisted and the hair on her neck stood up. She threw her head around in a distressed shake like a shying horse. "No, no, no, no!", she called out, "That cannot be right! This is a lie! A trick!"

However, then Vi's softened expression darkened and her fists rose. She was still wearing those garish Gauntlets, that symbolised the other side. No doubt, Caitlyn Kiramman gave them to her. Anything to make Violet indebted to her and put her on a leash. Anything to give her sister even more of a reason to pull away from Jinx and pretend that she was a stranger.

She mirrored Violet's action, bringing Pow-Pow forth. Her eyes darkened and she blinked angry tears away as she had to hear her once more speak of Silco in such a vile language. Her purple gaze briefly darted over towards the gash underneath her eye, out of which dripped fresh blood.

Jinx spoke angrily: "Do not talk of Silco like that! He took The Last Drop fair and square! Unlike you. Since when do you believe you have any claim towards this bar? I thought you were Topside, chumming it with that Piltie Enforcer buddy of yours." There was a hopeful and maddening gleam in her purple eyes as she called out: "No way! Did she grow tired of her trencher toy?!"

@undercity-merc cont. from here.

[shimmerbeasts]

Jinx did not like this situation one bit. Being injured and weakened had always been a dangerous thing to be in Zaun. You especially were not supposed to be weakened and injured before another predator. And as much as Jinx preferred to see Caitlyn as prey and an easy meal, even she had to admit in her scrambled head that Commander Blueblood was a threat, not to be taken lightly.

She hated having to listen to anything this woman had to say. She hated it even more that Caitlyn was right. Her legs hurt and the wound on her belly burned with each breath. Right now, her fate was literally in the hands of the woman who had used the Grey itself to flush her out like an animal fleeing a forest fire. Jinx still could not understand why her sister had ever agreed to do this.

Their gaze met. Where Jinx's purple hues were still simmering with hatred and rage - "Don't let yourself be defanged by anybody!" -, Caitlyn's gaze lacked the terror she had had all those months ago when the Loose Canon had kidnapped the Piltie in her bathroom. Instead, she examined her with almost something like pity? The expression caused Jinx to bare her teeth further, pulling her chops back to properly expose the jagged and serrated fangs, she had inherited from Felicia. Once of Vastayan descendence, always of Vastayan descendence.

The rifle, previously close to her head, was thrown over Caitlyn's shoulder. Jinx panted and rasped, searching in her mind for a possible understanding of the situation, yet she came up blank. Where was Kiramman going with this? Puzzlement continued to fume in her innards. Her breathing was fast as she continued to wait for the other shoe to drop. There had to be another shoe. There always was!

The mere prospect of having to stick with Caitlyn, who had contested her sister's affection, felt wrong in her guts. And Jinx had to remember: Vi loved her. Vi wanted her opinion of things. Vi trusted her. Was there really a competition anymore? Still, the idea of having to place her trust in an Enforcer out of all things was terrifying. Caitlyn wasn't Marcus and Jinx wasn't Silco. Jinx had not been able to somehow buy Caitlyn's loyalty. What if this was a trick?

"She's lying, she is lying, she is lying!"

The feeling of nettles around her throat was so intense that Jinx's hand flew to her neck as if she wanted to tear the plants off. It had been months since she had last heard Mylo's voice. Even just looking up at Caitlyn seemed to be too much for her mind. Had Caitlyn sprouted a pair of horns? Was that a vile grin?

"Gaaah!", Jinx yelled and tore her gaze away. Looking out at the bloodied battlefield, she forced herself to listen to Caitlyn's reasoning, turning it over in her head again and again. Caitlyn was doing this for Vi. Vi was her sister. Vi had trusted her when she had said that the wolfish beast was Vander. If Vi could put her trust in Jinx during a moment of danger, didn't Jinx owe her sister the same?

Her stomach no longer hurt as much. There was still blood on her belly, but the wound had closed up more. Even her legs no longer felt as wobbly. "Now!" That was about as much warning as Caitlyn got before Jinx slammed her rough hand on the Piltover Enforcer's shoulder and used her to pull herself up on her feet. Half leaning against Caitlyn, Jinx said: "Lead the way. My advice: Find a tunnel with a narrow entrance."

The situation looked extremely dire; they had been separated from Vi and whoever those people tagging along with her, those she called family the same way she had always done from the beginning with the monster squirming a couple of meters away from her. They were safe for now, but the screams of battle and death were still loud enough to know better that sensation of temporary safety could last for any longer.

Her gaze focused on the younger girl, observing the wound she had just covered with her own handkerchief. The blue of her eyes was darker, deep like the sea carrying an incoming storm.

"You can barely stand on your feet, so shut up and let me think." the poison in her voice drizzled in her words, a frustration that was directed more to herself than anyone else. White fabric had mostly turned of a dark crimson, and it didn't seem to want to stop.

Cailtyn had three option to ponder: potentially getting both of them out from there, and therefore saving a murderer, her mother's killer. Going to look for Vi herself, but that would imply risking to lose Jinx in every sense. And lastly, pulling that trigger to put an end to the torment that had haunted for the past months.

An animalistic growl escaped the other, Caitlyn's eyes finally allowing themselves to meet those she had been seeing in her nightmares every single day, when she was sleeping, when she was awake made no difference anymore. Those purple hues that barely belonged to anything you could call human like, the purple that had creeped in as fear underneath her skin when she had met for the first time in what seemed to be ages ago now.

There was no terror left anymore as the Commander looked down to that monster who looked so miserable before her. A creature that was cursed with anger and hatred to the world, pitiful.

Where they so different, after all?

Her gun was thrown on her shoulder in the end, boots heavily moving closer to Vi's family. One knee met the ground, her gaze now level eye with the girl.

"You're going to listen to me carefully, Jinx" the name itself left a bitterness in her mouth she wished she could spit out "I am not doing this for you, but for Vi only. If you die today she will never forgive herself, and I wouldn't be able to face her knowing I did not do anything."

"In your current state, you would be only digging your own grave if we go back out there. So, I will take your of here, safely and then, we'll regroup to find Vi. If you play any tricks on me, that will only postpone finding your family." the intensity of her blue grew deeper, the waves crashing louder against the shore as the storm hit everything before her.

"Our only option is to stick together for now, and I want to find Vi too. I will take you of here and we can both find them together. Understood?" she paused, looking for an answer in that girl no one could barely read.

"How long before your body is healed enough for you to walk?"

[shimmerbeasts]

"And here we go." Jinx softly fastened the last screw. "Now, we are done." Looking at the small mechanical Firelight, she was balancing on her fingers, the Loose Canon giggled in her perch in the rafters. "Go on then. Off you pop."

Jinx flicked her wrist and sent the Firelight flying. Its soft mechanical wiring filled the air as it flew around the office before it dandily landed. on the desk in front of Silco. The moment its two antennas hit, a slightly metallic-sounding voice could be heard: "Hello, hello, hello. This is a pre-recording. Ding, ding, ding. Let's hope this works."

Dialogue starter for @jynxd

[shimmerbeasts]

"I am sorry I lost the target." Jinx sat on Silco's desk, her boots pushed softly against his thighs and her head snuggled against cupped fingers, which held onto the injector. "We passed the old Arcade and suddenly, they were all too loud again. I... I didn't mean to freeze. But it is how the target got away. I don't even remember where it went."

Dialogue starter for @zaunseye.